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17 Drake J. Agric. L. 1 (2012)
The USDA Discrimination Cases: Pigford, In re Black Farmers, Keepseagle, Garcia, and Love

handle is hein.journals/dragl17 and id is 13 raw text is: THE USDA DISCRIMINATION CASES:
PIGFORD, IN RE BLACK FARMERS, KEEPSEA GLE,
GARCIA, AND LOVE
Stephen Carpenter*
I.      Introduction..........................................
II.     Background                                 ............2............. ...............2
III.    Discrimination Generally...............................5
IV.     USDA History and Discrimination     ................       ..........7
V.      Agricultural Credit and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA)......11
VI.     The Discrimination Cases      .................................13
A. Pigford             ....................................   .....15
B. Keepseagle         .............................  ..............21
C. In re Black Farmers Discrimination Litigation ......     ........27
D. Garcia, Love, and a USDA Administrative Process ..         ..........32
VII.    Conclusion ..........................................34
I. INTRODUCTION
Over the past several years, the practical terms of the contemporary in-
tersection of race, gender, and agriculture generated several lawsuits. In this
litigation, African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and women allege
that the USDA discriminated against them when they sought to participate in
USDA programs as farmers.' The cases involve tens of thousands of class mem-
bers and billions of dollars in remedies while tens of thousands more claimants
*    Senior Staff Attorney, Farmers' Legal Action Group, Saint Paul, Minnesota; for-
merly Senior Counsel for the Pigford Monitor; and at present Ombudsman for In re Black Farmers
Discrimination Litigation.
These are the terms used to describe plaintiffs in the various cases. While both
Hispanic and Latino and Native American and Indian respectively might be used interchangeably,
and considerable discussion addresses the merits of each identifying term, this article generally
follows the terminology used in the litigation in question. See Garcia v. Vilsack, 563 F.3d 519
(D.C. Cir. 2009); Love v. Connor, 525 F. Supp. 2d 155 (D.C. Dist. 2007); Keepseagle v. Johanns,
236 F.R.D. I (D.C. Dist. 2006); Pigford v. Glickman, 185 F.R.D. 82 (D.C. Dist. 1999).

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